


today we are champions

by emblems



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Stream of Consciousness, for rinharu week: day 1, olympics fic, second-person narration, this is complete and utter sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-26 08:22:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2644895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emblems/pseuds/emblems
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You are swimming with Rin in an official event (legally) for the first time.</p><p>You are swimming in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics for the first time.</p><p>You are swimming.</p><p>You are swimming with Rin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	today we are champions

It's your first race.

Well. No, it isn't. There have been a lot of races.

But for the two of you—it might as well be the first, based on how much your blood is rushing through your veins at this moment.

You've practiced together, in Japan's official facilities; you've done this at time trials. It is not unfamiliar to watch Rin push off the wall in fluid motion, an explosion of power. It is not unfamiliar to watch Rin soar through the water in a way you have never seen before from anyone else.

And yet, standing on the starting block, waiting and watching him course through the water, watching him fly—there's a new sensation.

It's different, because you're surrounded by thousands and watched by millions. Everyone holds their breath, and so do you, because this is the first time you've swam _together_ , for others to see, others to cheer.

This is the first time it's felt real—that your dream, and Rin's dream, and _yours and Rin's dream_ feels real. Real as the starting block under your feet and the goggles digging into your skull and the chlorine in your lungs. As real as the way Rin had reached for your hand just before the race started, as real as the way he'd squeezed your fingers.

(Though you wonder if you didn't just imagine that.)

Despite everything—that racing Rin has always sent your heart racing and lit your blood afire, there's something different about today.

You'd never expected you'd both be here. Never—not until Rin had opened your eyes, taken your hand and helped you on your way, brought light back into your world.

The strange thing is you're pretty sure Rin always did—imagined it, that is. Dreamed of it constantly.

You'd never let yourself do the same, never once let it cross your mind for fear of losing it. Of losing everything.

Losing Rin, as you did so many years ago, a time that somehow feels as though it happened yesterday while simultaneously seeming a whole lifetime away. 

But, no, it's definitely this life. It happened in sharp relief and you can still feel the ghosts of it every time you're in the water with him. It's that pain, though, that makes every breath next to Rin, makes every moment you spend with him, every race, every practice—it makes it all the more precious. 

That's what makes this race so different.

Everything is so vivid and real, the air in your lungs filling you up, spreading from the center of your chest outwards, to every fingertip and down to your toes. 

You are swimming with Rin in an official event (legally) for the first time.

You are swimming in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics for the first time.

You are swimming.

You are swimming with Rin.

Rin is approaching the wall at a breakneck pace. You take your mark. His hands reach out, his legs pushing him that last stretch—

You push off the block. 

The way Rin calls out your name is something you feel more than something you hear.

As soon as you hit the water, you feel it. You feel what Rin left in the water. You feel his strength, feel his power and every ounce of his passion. You feed on it, taking it all in; it fills you up and fuels you just as much as your first gulp of air. 

Rin carved a path in the water, carved it with his hands and his heart, his mind and soul, a path for you both, a path for you to follow. You slide through the water in a way that is brand new, because suddenly you know you cannot lose this race, and it doesn't matter than even if Rin closed the gap he couldn't put your team in the lead—it doesn't matter, it _does not matter_.

Rin has always been a source of fire—light and energy and _life_ —and you will not let such a precious resource go to waste.

You approach the end of the lane. You tuck into the water, feel your feet hit the stone. You push off and enter the final stretch. 

You will not let this race, this career-opening, tone setting-race, end in a loss. 

Your first race together—you and Rin will not lose, not with everything that's happened. Years of misunderstanding, of loss and pain and confusion, of putting each other back together and setting each other to rights, months spent separated while Rin was in Australia, of putting energy towards racing, not just to keep swimming but to keep swimming with Rin, both of you finally making it to the same stage, making it onto the relay—

You cannot lose, not together, when you are swimming together, in the purest form of the word—swimming together on the top of the world.

Your hand hits the wall. The water breaks around you as you surface, gasping for air. 

Inches away, bent down so he's nearly at eye level, is Rin. Your breath parts the hair strewn across his forehead. The moisture on his face, you know, is not just from the pool. 

Distantly, you notice your other teammates celebrating. 

Your focus is somewhere else entirely.

"Rin?" you ask.

And Rin laughs, and you're sure you've never heard anything quite as happy. You can see every part of Rin wants to move, to take your hand and hoist you from the water.

There's an answering itch in your hand. But first: you move from one side of your lane and then to the other, shaking the hands of your competitors. There's a knowing look behind their disappointment, a hunger for your fortune. 

Rin, refusing to be delayed any longer, tugs you from the water with the force of a tidal wave, pulling you straight into his harms. You're both lucky Rin is so _solid_ , else you'd both be on the ground.

And you don't hesitate, you just sink into his arms, wrapping yourself around him.

You still haven't looked at the board.

You don't have to.

You smile. "Rin, stop crying."

Rin pulls away, tears still flowing, but his grin is enough to light the entire stadium. His hand reaches up to brush at the moisture at the corner of your eye.

"You first."

**Author's Note:**

> for day one, prompt: firsts, and "a flame that kindles in your heart"
> 
> this is the result of many a conversation on twitter. with that in mind, this goes out to all of the lovelies in the rh clan. <3
> 
> thank you to [dicey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/thecivilunrest) for reading this over.


End file.
